Newsletter Articles

NACD KIDS: From Smart to Brilliant

– by Elisse Davis

Last fall, I decided to finally enlist the help of NACD in my homeschool efforts. My friend had been telling me about NACD for years, so now that my youngest had turned two, I thought I could make the commitment. My oldest daughter, Ariel, in 5th grade, is a smart child, usually self-motivated, and happily compliant. We had been using every good resource we could find to create her curriculum. But I still felt like I was so amateur at being a teacher that I was sure I was “ruining” her. I simply didn’t know if I was doing the right thing. Additionally, my daughter would have unexplained reactions to frustration. Usually, when frustrated she would burst into tears. This tendency to cry inappropriately was disconcerting to her extra-curricular teachers, and embarrassing for her. After listening to the introductory CDs from NACD, I decided to see if they could help me help her.

The first thing they did was have her start occluding. Evidently helping her to receive input laterally (right hand, right eye, right ear, etc) would help her overcome some of her frustrations. The second thing we needed to start doing was improving her memory. We immediately started implementing the NACD program to improve these two areas, and within two weeks we saw great improvement on the issue of emotionality. We didn’t really believe it was related to the occluding at first, but then she spent a day or two not occluding and suffered all kinds of frustration those days. After another few weeks, Ariel began to recognize the benefit herself, and now admits that she prefers to occlude because of how much it helps her.

Once, after about 4 months of doing program, we got to a point where we felt “stuck.” So we took a short break from some of the more difficult and frustrating items on her program and emphasized the occluding. Three weeks later, when we got back to her full program, we found that her auditory processing had increased to the next level.

We were so excited! With just that jump, she has been able to show dramatic improvement in all her other school areas as well. It has been amazing to me to see how little of a good thing can make such a difference. Her strong areas have become stronger. And her weak areas are less daunting. She’s more confident and willing to try new things that once were too difficult and frustrating.

The bonus for me has been the homeschooling. NACD has taught me how to teach the various subjects in a way that she jumped from 5th grade to 8th grade level in just three months. The combination of correct teaching principles and NACD’s Targeted Developmental Intervention has increased her confidence as well as mine. My once smart child is receiving the tools to make her truly brilliant! My other children can’t wait until it is their turn to go to NACD.